97 Cobra Restomod - Snow Pony

all done and coated in POR15. aside from bumper modifications. i think i gotta strip the paint off the rest of the car now.
gonna save that for after christmas.

She's going to be a beaut when you're finished!

I guess you could say things are getting pretty serious

i'm not going to take it down 100% to bare metal. my main priority is removing the black and most of the factory stuff to help the new finish have its best shot at a long life.

Nice work, as always. Just curious why you decided not to take it down to bear metal.

good question, i'm not done so more is coming off for sure but that said getting every last tiny bit off is just unnecessary, the stock paint job was thin and flaked off so they piled on a thick coat of black. If I just went over that the foundation would be questionable.

Getting it mostly down to bare metal does a couple things. First it reveals any body work (none so far) second it removes the possibility of the second paint job screwing the third.

The idea is you want a very smooth stable surface. if i found any bondo used properly getting that out would just cost time. same goes for OEM sealer essentially acting as very thin filler.

I'll go over it all with a da making sure it's all kosher before the primer which will be block sanded anyhow.

The paint when I got the car was just waaaaaay too thick to be trusted so most of it has to come off.

Thick paint also makes the lines of any car less sharp.

to clarify on why stripping to metal might not be necessary 100% here is an example of something you can't feel even though you see a spot.

in this image notice how the ring of sealer around the white spot is thin and the spot is big.
in this one notice how the ring got thicker but the overall size stayed about the same with the white spot shrinking. if you've ever read a topography map it works like that. this spot can't be felt with your hand. the lighter ring around the dark ring is scuffed metal so the primer and paint are actually filling in slight distortion in the sheet metal.

this is exactly why nice cars get block sanded. doesn't matter how good the sheet metal is it wont' be perfect. getting every last one of these out is just a good way to waste time money and effort.



so here's the rear quarter done and the door/rocker 99.999% done. some nooks and crannies i have to do by hand.
none of the spots you see can be felt when you close your eyes and run your hand across the metal.
furthermore, any material that will be painted over here has never seen UV light because its been buried deep beneath more layers of paint.


see the layers? factory sealer, factory white, black, and either clear or another black piled on. stuff was SUPER thick.



this is the fender i have to strip before i prime this side of the car. can you see how thick this crap was? imagine building a second story on a house. tricky but not impossible. now imagine building a third... recipe for disaster.

Excellent and thorough explanation. Thanks. I especially agree with this in your post above. "This is exactly why nice cars get block sanded. Doesn't matter how good the sheet metal is it wont' be perfect. Getting every last one of these out is just a good way to waste time money and effort." That is so true!

well today was an adventure. mistakes were made and lessons learned.

1. i didn't mix enough primer to do the whole side
2. i didn't realize i needed another coat until after i cleaned my gun
3. i then had to set up my gun again so i spattered the hell out of the fender
4. the gun then started dripping like crazy

basically massive fail but at least i got a couple coats of the good stuff on the bare metal.

i'm now thinking after i get all the body work done and cut in all the parts i might have a shop get her over the finish line.

new video update for a new year!

got the driver's side stripped but started running out of gas so i'll finish prep and prime these tomorrow.

after stripping the whole car the only bondo i found was one little door ding or something on one fender and the antenna delete. redid them with bondo glass after i got to the bottom to make sure no surprises were lurking.

so, the major deed is done. some bumper mods, alittle body work, and then its time to make the paint stick.

got some plastic filler on the way to fix up these bumpers.

Nice attention to detail. I enjoyed the video of the one side primed. Looking good!

Got the fuel door to be flush all the way around. I had to make it sorta convex shaped to fit the curves of the car. really happy with how this one turned out. the black stuff is POR15 just to make sure i got all the nooks and crannies are rust protected until painttime comes.





peekaboo

plate delete done. next we finish sanding all of it, apply adhesion promoter, and prime it along with the hood and rear bumper.

hood mods for STB clearance and heat extraction. the vent covers are removable and will get some kind of grill treatment to class things up a bit.

didn't get as much done today as I wanted to on account of looming rainclouds but I did get the hood fiberglass work done.
hopefully gonna get it and the bumper in primer tomorrow.

bumper is repaired and mostly sanded. another once over and she'll be ready for the gray stuff.

Looking good! Excited to see the car after it’s shot. Very nice work, sir.

thanks man, i prolly won't be updating here as often in the future. forums with double standards and arbitrary rule enforcement are not worth my time.